1 - Gladstone Adams. Mission House, City Road, Ouseburn

The man who came up with the idea for the windscreen wiper in 1908 - on the way home after watching Newcastle United lose that year’s FA Cup final to Wolves 3-1.

He was travelling in his car when it started to snow and after stopping a number of times Gladstone had his “eureka” moment and realised what a good idea it would be to have a device which would wipe the windscreen clean as you drove along.

However, although he patented the idea for the windscreen wiper, his version was never actually manufactured, and in the history books it’s an American who’s credited with the invention.

2 - Ludwig Wittgenstein. 28 Brandling Park, Jesmond

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Brandling Park, Jesmond

Born in Vienna, he was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. He moved on England and served as a porter in Guy’s Hospital, London, during WWII where he got to know two doctors who on transfer to Newcastle’s RVI invited him to join them working as their lab assistant at £4 per week – a post he eventually took up in April 1943. He became a lodger at Mrs Moffat’s house at 28 Brandling Park, Jesmond.

3 - Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shields Road, Byker

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Who would have thought of Toon Arnie? But for a week in 1967 the young Austrian, who could barely speak a word of English, worked out in a gym on Shields Road in Byker.

It was North East bodybuilder John Citrone who brought Arnie here, the pair used to compete together in Mr Universe contests.

Shortly after his North East stay, Arnie went to America for the first time, competed as a bodybuilder and broke into films.

4 - Ove Arup - 16 Jesmond Vale Terrace, Newcastle

Bronze bust of Ove Arup

Impressed by the Sydney Opera House? Well you might be surprised to learn the man responsible for it, Ove Arup and considered to be among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time, is a Geordie. He was born in Newcastle in 1895, to the Danish veterinary surgeon Jens Simon Johannes Arup and his Norwegian wife Mathilde Bolette Nyquist.

As well as being the design engineer for the Sydney Opera House, he is also responsible for Kingsgate Bridge in Durham and the Pompidou centre in Paris.

5 - Yevgeny Zamyatin - 19 Sanderson Road, Byker

Yevgeni Zamyatin, Sanderson Road Jesmond

Top ‘Marx’ for anyone who has heard of this Russian author of science fiction and political satire. He is most famous for his 1921 novel ‘We’, a story set in a dystopian future police state which became the first work banned by the Soviet censorship board.

Zamyatin graduated as a naval architect in Petersburg and was posted to Newcastle, where he wrote a novella Islanders, which was published in 1918 after his return to Russia, which really marked the beginning of his literary career

6 - Lord Taylor - 51 Westgate Road, Newcastle

Plaque dedicated to Lord Taylor of Gosforth on Westgate Road in Newcastle.

Born and raised in Newcastle - he studied at Newcastle Royal Grammar School - he is most famous for The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster of April 1989, at which 95 Liverpool F.C. fans died (a 96th fan eventually died in 1993, having never regained consciousness). It led to huge safety improvements at football grounds which resulted in all seater stadia in the top division.

7 - John Wesley - 53 Northumberland Street, Newcastle

John Wesley

An Anglican cleric and Christian theologian who, with his brother Charles Wesley and fellow cleric George Whitefield, is credited with the foundation of the evangelical movement known as Methodism.

There is a Plaque to denote the site of former Orphan House in Northumberland Street where Wesley laid the foundation stone in 1743 for it to become the second Methodist chapel in England.

8 - Arthur Henderson - 198 Croydon Road, Newcastle

Blue plaques dedicated to Arthur Henderson

Arthur Henderson was the first Labour cabinet minister, and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of the Labour Party in three different decades.

Born in Scotland, he moved to Newcastle with his family after his father died and his mother re-married and began in his working life in the city aged 12 at the Stephenson Locomotive Works.

In later life he worked with the World League of Peace and chaired the Geneva Disarmament Conference and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934.

9 - Charles Alcock - Norfolk Street, Sunderland

Charles Alcock

The man who created the FA Cup, Alcock was an influential English sportsman and administrator. He was also responsible for the first ever international soccer match (and subsequent early international games) with Scotland. The first two of these took place in 1870, with later matches in 1871 and 1872.

10 - Stan Laurel - Dockwray Place, North Shields

Stan Laurel plaque, Dockwray Square

Hollywood legend Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, Cumbria in June, 1890 and, shortly after, his parents moved to North Shields.

He lived there between the ages of five and 15 with his theatrical family - his father was a celebrated performer as well as running local theatres.

11 - Giuseppe Garibaldi - Huntington Place, Tynemouth

Giuseppe Garibaldi

He was the great popular hero of Italian Unification who stayed for three weeks in the North East between March and April 1854 and gave a talk at an informal meeting at the Blaydon Mechanics’ Institute.

A public appeal on Tyneside for penny-a-head subscriptions towards a sword and telecope for him saw its target raised within days. Garibaldi later revealed said he unsheathed the gold hilted Tyneside sword in anger in 1859 ‘against the troops of the Italian despot’.

12 - Harriet Martineau - Front Street, Tynemouth

Harriet Martineau

One of the most prominent and versatile women writers of the 19th century as well as one of the most controversial. Not a local by birth, she arrived in Tynemouth in 1840, in ill health, and fully expecting to die, to be with her brother-in-law doctor. Already a prolific writer on subjects such as religion, politics, economics and social reform she was far from idle whilst in Tynemouth. During her five year stay, when she made a surprising recovery, she published a novel, The Hour and The Man, a book of children`s stories, The Playfellow and a collection of meditative essays, Life in The Sick Room. She eventually moved to Ambleside in the Lake District.

13 - Emily Wilding Davison - Longhorsely post office

A plaque dedicated to Emily Davison is at Longhorsley post office

Emily Davison was fatally injured when she ran out in front of King George V’s horse during the 1913 Epsom Derby.

Following a funeral service in London, her coffin was brought by train to Morpeth for burial in the family plot. Davison’s family was based in Northumberland, although her parents had moved to London shortly before her birth in October 1872.

Connections with the county remained strong, and following her father’s death the family returned to Longhorsley. A plaque dedicated to her at Longhorsley post office says she set off from there for the fateful derby.

14 - Mo Mowlam - 1 Summerhill Terrace, Newcastle

Mo Mowlam

One of the most popular Labour MPs of the Tony Blair period, she lived in Summerhill Terrace, Newcastle from 1979 to 1983 while a lecturer in politics at Newcastle University.

She later became MP for Redcar 1987-2001 and Northern Ireland Secretary from 1997-1999, when she led talks that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate of civil law by Newcastle University in 1998 and stood down as an MP in 2001.